LU Moment: Julian Stevens' journey from LU to NY Fashion Week | S8 Ep. 28

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Podcast: S8 Ep. 28
Date: October 07, 2025
Title: LU Moment: Julian Stevens' journey from LU to NY Fashion Week | S8 Ep. 28
Host: John Rollins

JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with 51�Թ�Profaculty, staff, students and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. From the halls of 51�Թ�Proto New York Fashion Week, my guest today is one of our alumni who is doing amazing things with his BBA and Marketing degree from Lamar University. Joining me today on the podcast is Julian Stevens. Julian, welcome to the show. Glad to have you here.

JULIAN STEVENS: Thank you. It’s a pleasure.

JOHN: So, let's go ahead and talk about this. You know, let's start with your clothing business. It’s Dos Corazonez. Am I saying that right? I can’t roll my Rs. So that's the closest I can get.

JULIAN: You did better than a lot of people. Okay, so tell us about it. You know, where did this idea come from? And tell us about the business.

JULIAN: Well, the idea came as a tribute to my late mother. Her name was Diane Crosby. She passed away in 2020 due to breast cancer, so I just wanted to come up with a way to honor her. And I thought, what better way to honor her through one of my passions, which is clothes and fashion. When coming up with the name, I just kind of wanted to incorporate her name in there, which her name is Diane Crosby, so DC, Dos Corazonez, basically means “two hearts” in Spanish, and it just represents the love she had for her two sons. So that's how we kind of came up with the name in 2020 and not only that, my message is, I just try to show everybody, you know, everybody grieves. It's an ongoing process. It never ends. One day you'll be happy. One day, you know, you'll be sad. So just to show people that you can turn something positive out of a negative, which is, you know, grieving, pain, turning into something good. So that's how that kind of started, with the brand.

JOHN: Fantastic. Well, I love that. It's a tribute, as well as, kind of her legacy, living on through this business that you've started, and I know you all have a location in Parkdale mall. I believe you started on Calder, and kind of grew to that storefront in Parkdale.

JULIAN: Yes sir, well, we actually started off online, you know, online sales, social media and stuff like that, the first year, and then we just decided to get a location for more foot traffic, and people can meet us, and, you know, come actually try the stuff on, versus, you know, riding around trying to sell out of the trunk or, you know, online, and people could actually try the product on. So yeah, we started off on Calder. We had a suite there for like, a year, but then we noticed we probably could get more foot traffic, a lot more people could find out about us in the mall as well. So we got a location in the mall, and it was kind of small and kind of ducked off, but we did pretty good there the first two years. In this last year, we decided to move to a more high foot traffic location towards the front of the mall, where Dillard’s is located, so everybody goes to that side and we doubled the square foot of the last store. So it's way bigger as well, and we've been doing pretty good this last year. We make a year this month, so it's been doing good for us in Parkdale.

JOHN: So, you know, before we go too much further, let's hear a little bit more about you. You know, are you local? Tell us more about your time while you were here at Lamar University, since you are an alumni and where did all of this start? Were you just the well dressed kid in school growing up? Like, where did this come from?

JULIAN: Yeah, I'm born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. Been here my whole life, but yeah, I always had a passion for, you know, shoes, especially. I was nominated for best dressed in high school. I didn't win, unfortunately. I attended West Brook High School. But yeah, always had a passion for clothing. I've worked in a clothing store. I have over eight to 10 years retail management experience, so that's kind of where I've been around clothes my whole my whole life. That's actually where I met my business partner. He was my assistant, so we just kind of got close there, and that's how our bond grew. And he's kind of the one who pushed me into it, because he had already had his clothing line in around, like 2018 so that's kind of, he kind of helped me get mine started, too.

JOHN: So we've definitely got to talk about this. Dos Corazonez recently visited New York Fashion Week. You know, you all took part in a fashion show and a pop-up shop out there. So how was that experience?

JULIAN: It was great. It was wonderful, like it was very inspiring just to go out there. That was my second time going to New York, but first for like, fashion, anything fashion related. So it was very inspiring just to be in the atmosphere around a whole bunch of different brands from all over the country, big and small. But yeah, we participated. We were invited to a fashion show that Friday. Want to say it was the 13th, I believe, and that was pretty good. We showcased past and present pieces from our overall collection, just to get our name out there and just show people what we have. And it was pretty good. It was a good turnout. And then the following day, we had a pop-up shop at a showroom in Soho, the Soho area in New York. And that was pretty great as well. We met a lot of people, sold some stuff, but yeah, most of all, when we are going on these trips, we try to network as much as possible. That's how we were able to get to these events, from networking in Houston. We do a lot of events in Houston as well. Okay, and this past year, we’ve just been trying to get on the road and just grow the brands and just, you know, expand, but, yeah, that's main but the trip was wonderful. Came back inspired and just hit the ground running and ready to work.

JOHN: Well, that was going to be my next question. How do you get an invitation to something like that? You said networking and going around Houston and these larger areas kind of helped lead you to the Fashion Week?

JULIAN: So last year, about around this time last year, we took a trip to Atlanta. They have a big, big event out there, like three times a year, I believe it's like every quarter. It's called the Atlanta Streetwear Market. And we participated in that last year, and we networked and met a lot of people from like the New York area and the Connecticut and New Jersey areas. He's the one that actually reached out to us and was said he was organizing and throwing a fashion show. It was way earlier this year, like in January, for New York Fashion Week, and he said he loved for us to be a part of it. I was like, hey, there's a no brainer. New York Fashion Week. I'm trying to grow, trying to get my stuff out there, right? So it was a no brainer. That's how, that's actually how we got invited to that. But just every just really networking, yeah.

JULIAN: But getting out there, putting Southeast 51�Թ�Proon the map for sure, and your brand, and, you know, everything that y'all stand for. So, for listeners who might be tuning in right now, could you kind of explain the brand? What kind of clothing can they find if they come to Parkdale Mall or visit you online? Tell us a little bit about it. We've heard about the genesis, you know, in honor of your mother and the DC and everything that it stands for. But what can they find from you if they come to Parkdale Mall?

JULIAN: Basically, it's a mixture of me and my business partners brand. His brand is called Plottin Billions, and mine is Dos Corazonez. So that's why our partner brand is called PBDC company. But basically, you'll find a wide assortment of street wear, mostly men's. We try to start branching out into kids clothing and women pieces here and there, but mostly men's street wear. We try to make unique pieces, like you wouldn't find anywhere out here. A lot of different materials we use in our pieces, like, this is some of the stuff you might see if you go to New York. We just try to bring that to Beaumont, Texas. Just something different out here. But you'll see a wide assortment of hats, socks, tops. We do a lot of jerseys, because that's a big part of the street wear culture. Just a lot of different materials when we're making our pieces as well. But I could say you could see some, we have some everyday wear and we have some, like, if you're going out, you’ve got an event. A lot of people come to us when they they're trying to go to an event, like, especially in Houston or something. They can come to us and we can get them right.

JOHN: Well, I will say, to kind of to prep for this talk, I looked up New York Fashion Week just on YouTube, just to see what would pop up, and kind of looked at, you know, the styles and everything, and y'all definitely fit the vibe, for sure. You know, when you walked in, I was like, ‘Okay, I totally get it now.’ So that's really cool. And it sounds like there's a lot that they can find if they come into the storefront, you know, like you said, you can try the clothes on there. Yeah, can't beat that.

JULIAN: Yeah. You actually can find a lot more in store than you would on our website, because we have a lot of older inventory in in the store as well. Like, it may be one or two pieces left from, like, a couple seasons ago. Okay, so we don't, we try to take all of that off the website to make room for the newer inventory. So you might find some hidden gems. If you come inside Parkdale, I try to tell people that all the time, like people in Beaumont, don't know how really good they got it, because people that try to shop online, they may not find this piece on the website, but if you come in the store and check us out, you might, you know, find that on the website, catch something you know you needed or wanted, right?

JOHN: Alright, so you told me that your mother, your aunt, your uncle and your brother all graduated from 51�Թ�Proas well. So obviously we love that. You know, with that Lamar connection in mind, what are some of your favorite memories of your time here at Lamar? You know, we may have students listening who are pursuing a business degree, just like you did, any advice you'd give to them or favorite memories while you were here?

JULIAN: I’ll started off with the memories. Just overall, being on campus, it was just a good feeling, you know, walking to class, going to the Set, seeing all my classmates, the Rec, you know. They had a lot of good events here at my time at Lamar. Shout out to, you know, Antonio Wilson, rest in peace. He threw some of the best events here at Lamar University. I try to come back here and there and try to attend some of them, you know, just to promote the business. But I don't know if it's because I'm older or they just don't feel the same, but, but, yeah, man, my time I met a lot of good people here at Lamar, some that I still connect with today. So I would say, you don't have to have it all figured out at the moment, because I know I switched majors a couple times trying to figure it out. I started off as accounting, but then I figured that wasn't for me. I just was trying to, you know, do what my parents kind of wanted me to do, but it necessarily that's not what's best for you. I would say you don't have to have it all figured out. It's a plus if you do. But, just keep going. Keep grinding. You never know where or when it could take. You make sure you make you reach out to people and, you know, just attend these events. Try to join an organization if you can, because you never know, like the person that's sitting next to you, man, they might be in one of the biggest positions, a corporation. You know, one of the biggest corporations in the world. You never know. People from Lamar branch off to all different parts of the world. So I would say just network. Go to these events. Don't just go to class and go home, go to these events and just network with people and just talk to people. You never know what one conversation where it could lead you.

JOHN: Yeah, get involved, right? That's the short and sweet way put it. So speaking of being involved, you know, you're involved a lot in the local community as well. You told me that you recently partnered with Vincent Middle School and Cotton Cargo. Do you want to talk about that?

JULIAN: Yeah, we threw a workshop for Vincent Middle School and partnered with Cotton Cargo recently. It was basically just like a workshop to show kids what goes on behind the scenes. And like screen printing on T-shirts, showing them a little bit of the embroidery side, and just trying to get their minds, you know, rolling, like, maybe this might be a field they want to pursue. Just to show them, like you don't have to go the traditional route, there are different avenues you can take to for a career path. Because I know growing up, I didn't see a lot of that in my going to school. I didn't see a lot of that, so I figured it might inspire one of them. And, you know, if seeing somebody from their neighborhood or their because I went to Vincent as well, so it was a full circle moment for me, yeah, and so I felt, if we were trying to get that implemented into a couple other schools, I know one school had reached out to us, so we're trying to set that up as like an ongoing workshop for the kids, and just to show them different the avenues of, you know, career paths.

JOHN: That's a really good point, you know, because being an entrepreneur, I think, is maybe a side that the younger generation doesn't always think about, going for this business degree, and then you can open your own business potentially. So I think they see the police officers, firemen, that you know, the jobs that we all know about, and as kids, that's what's in their brain. Or an artist, you know, there's certain things that stand out, but you're right. This is absolutely a path they could pursue. So that's kind of neat that y'all are pouring into them at such a young age. So what's next for Julian? You know, how can folks keep up with you? Or Dos Corazonez, or do y'all have social media accounts? Website? Although you could pull up to the store anytime throughout the week, too.

JULIAN: Like we said, Eastex Freeway 6155 Eastex, Parkdale Mall, Suite 120. We're located near Dillard’s. Or you could go to the website, , the Instagram, @doscorazonezofficial, or we're on Facebook as well. You can follow our overall store page at PBDC company. But yeah, we're still we got a lot, like I said, we have a lot of we're trying to get more involved in the community. I have a big idea that I'm trying to work on with the breast cancer patients out here in Beaumont, trying to give back, and we're trying to implement that school workshop with other schools. And I'm still trying to, you know, stay in tune with Lamar, whether it be through my fraternity or, you know, we get a lot of students that come to the store as well, just trying to keep my ear in the loop to what's going on with the campus.

JOHN: So, you did mention in an email that you wouldn't mind closing out with an inspirational message. So if you would like to, what would you like to share?

JULIAN: Just for inspiration, I would just say whatever field you're in, whatever major or degree you're trying to pursue, just stay the course. Never give up. It's going to be hard, even after you graduate, whatever you try to do in life. It's going to be hard. So don't give up. Like, keep going. You're going to have setback after setback, especially in an entrepreneur position. A lot of people think it’s glamorous and easy, but it's really hard, but everything's hard. If you work or have a job, it's hard. If you're a manager, it's hard. So yeah, just keep rolling with the punches, never give up, because that one moment you give up, you never know like you could have, you could have went over the hill if you just stuck with it. So just keep going. Never give up.

JOHN: Solid advice. That could be the opportunity you were waiting on, right for sure. So Julian, thanks again for joining me on the podcast, and best of luck in all your future endeavors. And thanks for all that you do for our community.

JULIAN: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

JOHN: It's been a pleasure. That's a wrap on another episode, so please make sure to search LU Moment, wherever you get your podcast to keep up with the events, activities, programs and people right here at Lamar University. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.